No Password Required: An FBI Special Agent's Journey from Submarines to Anti-Corruption to Cybersecurity
The modern business technology landscape has been drastically altered over just a few short years. With these changes, eDiscovery and legal professionals have had to scramble to deal with the downstream effects to...more
I recently had the chance to visit with Jonathan Armstrong on a recent data breach case that occurred in the health service provider NHS Lanarkshire (Scotland) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This breach serves as a stark...more
On May 3, 2023, the FTC announced that it is proposing a blanket prohibition preventing Facebook from monetizing youth data. The Commission alleges that the company violated the 2020 privacy order and now proposes new...more
The passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) made it clear that the European Union (EU) is extremely serious about consumer privacy and that protecting EU citizens’ personal information is a top priority. The...more
Key practice takeaways from the Kişisel Verileri Koruma Kurumu (KVKK) Turkey EUR 195,000 fine against WhatsApp (which echoes the Data Protection Commission Ireland decision in many respects):.....more
On September 2, 2021, EU regulators fined Facebook-owned chat service, WhatsApp, £225 million (around $266 million) for failing to fully disclose its user data collection and sharing practices. This is the second largest fine...more
The Irish supervisory authority (Irish DPC) published its final decision to impose a fine of EUR 225 million on WhatsApp Ireland Ltd (WhatsApp)(on 2 September 2021). This decision follows a cross-border investigation into...more
CYBERSECURITY - FBI Warns of Hive Ransomware Following Attack Against Hospital System - On August 25, 2021, the FBI issued a Flash Alert to warn companies, especially in the health care industry, about the proliferation...more
When GDPR became effective three years ago, companies took notice of the fines and penalties attached to violations of the stringent privacy law—4 percent of global annual sales....more
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has imposed a fine of €225 million (more than $267 million) on WhatsApp, a popular messaging app owned by Facebook. Here are some key takeaways for companies subject to GDPR:.....more
Do you want a simple way to keep current on important privacy changes? Avoid sleepless nights wondering whether you missed a privacy speed bump or pothole between annual updates? Worry no longer. Troutman Pepper is pleased to...more
WhatsApp started notifying its 2 billion users last month about an update to its privacy policy. Most of its users probably didn’t look at the details, and simply clicked “I agree” when the notice popped up on their phones....more
Germany’s largest consumer protection organisation calls on Clubhouse operator Alpha Exploration Co. to cease and desist from illegal business practices and data protection violations. According to a statement by the...more
The latest lame-duck Covid relief package proposal would trim about 150 billion dollars (and a number of key sticking points, including funds “to bolster state and local governments, and a temporary coronavirus liability...more
We often think of phony financial institution emails as a bad actor’s phishing scheme of choice to capture confidential bank account numbers or other private financial information. While those phishing emails certainly do...more
India’s Reliance Industries is considering acquiring TikTok’s business in India from ByteDance. We recently discussed the growing distrust by companies and countries of TikTok because of the perceived vulnerability of user...more
WhatsApp has announced that it has patched a vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to access with malware the chat history of users. Android 8.1 and 9 could have been susceptible to the attack. However, WhatsApp is...more
The Situation: An investigation launched in 2016 by the German competition authority was meant to determine if Facebook was abusing its market position with its imposition of "misleading" data protection policies. The...more
The German antitrust authority (FCO) has ordered Facebook to stop collecting data outside Facebook’s platform without the user’s “voluntary consent.” The decision breaks new ground because it links data protection and...more
Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) became effective last Friday, May 25. That same day, the non-profit NOYB (from the colloquial “none of your business”) filed lawsuits against Google, together with...more
WhatsApp has been applauded for adding end-to-end encryption on its platform to secure conversations of its users two years ago. But encryption has its challenges, despite its security posture....more
On May 18, 2017, the EU Commission sentenced Facebook to a “proportionate and deterrent” fine of €110 million for providing misleading information during the investigation of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. This decision...more
Tobias Boelter, a University of California Berkeley cryptography researcher claims that last year he found a security flaw in WhatsApp’s encrypted smart phone messaging application. The flaw, which relates to the unique...more
The European Commission's proposed e-privacy regulation sets forth obligations on handling electronic communications and clarifies obligations for seeking consent for the use of cookies. Meant to bring the e-privacy directive...more
In late October 2016, European Union (“EU”) data protection authorities issued letters to Yahoo and WhatsApp related to alleged privacy incidents involving those companies. The letters were issued by a collective of EU data...more